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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27113054">someone you maybe might love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/martialartist816/pseuds/martialartist816'>martialartist816</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Identity Reveal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:08:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,946</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27113054</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/martialartist816/pseuds/martialartist816</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Another akuma attack prevents Adrien from transforming, and it's one too many times for Ladybug.</p>
<p>Or: Ladybug and Chat Noir play twenty questions.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>294</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>someone you maybe might love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>
  <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6K8VQ84MqhsoakN5MjrnVR?si=rKp2-8yQSRuX8op3qgzqgg">title from here</a>
</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adrien happens to be looking out the car window when a young girl on the pavement bumps into someone and spills coffee down her shirt. He winces sympathetically (it’s uncomfortable when it’s hot, and it gets worse as it cools), but he keeps watching to see her groan in frustration and step off the pavement to cross a busy street just as a rickshaw speeds by. The tires squeal through a puddle, drenching the girl in even more, less savory stains.</p>
<p>His first instinct is to go out and help, but their light turns green, and his car pulls away. The last thing he sees is a flock of pigeons flying overhead, and if he’s at all familiar with bad luck (black cat and all), he knows how that’s going to end for the poor girl.</p>
<p>He doesn’t think anything of it, though. People have bad days sometimes.</p>
<p>They get a few blocks closer to home when the car jolts, sweves, and stops. The ground rattles a little, and Adrien is unbuckled and out of his seat as quickly as possible. Squinting in the afternoon sun, he spots a figure flying up into the sky. A high, manic laugh echoes down the street.</p>
<p>Adrien takes off, ignoring the panicked voice of his bodyguard quickly fading behind him. He comes to a group of teenagers huddled together and staring worriedly at the sky, at the akuma above them.</p>
<p>“Don’t be embarrassed, Alexandria! Not that many people even saw you getting drenched in street water!” one of them shouts. Adrien wishes he could tell them that trying to console an already akumatized victim is futile.</p>
<p>“I am not Alexandria! Now, I am Perplexe, and I am sick of being perceived!”</p>
<p>Perplexe wields a black and white magician wand, and she wears a black tailcoat with white face paint and red makeup. Her eyebrows arch in a cartoonishly devious expression.</p>
<p>“I’ll petrify anyone who saw what happened to me, and then I’ll doom the same fate to anyone who dares to look at me at all! Starting with <em> you </em> three!”</p>
<p>She lowers her wand at her friends below, and with a flash of red lightning, the three of them freeze in place, arms wrapped around each other and faces locked in a show of fear.</p>
<p>“Adrien…” Plagg warns from inside his shirt.</p>
<p>“Time to go,” Adrien agrees, and he turns to head for the nearest alley.</p>
<p>“Not even strangers are allowed to know!” Perplexe growls. The hair at the back of Adrien’s neck stands up as he feels the akuma chase him.</p>
<p>He stops short of the alley and turns around to defend himself, arms raised. He’s not much in a fight without his suit, but he can’t risk the akuma seeing him transform.</p>
<p>But Perplexe abandons the chase several feet away and, with a smirk, aims her wand directly at him.</p>
<p>“Adrien!”</p>
<p>“Marinette…?” Adrien mumbles to himself in response to the perplexingly (ha) familiar voice.</p>
<p>He makes the mistake of turning his head, searching the rooftops above in the direction he heard his name called. The last thing his senses read is a flash of red swinging in from above, and then everything goes… still.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Adrien is aware of how much time passes, and he isn’t at the same time. It feels like an instant, but a very long one, before he regains mobility, stumbling forward a few steps under the sudden weight of his own body. He leans a hand against the building wall for support as he searches around him for signs of danger, of the akuma, of Ladybug.</p>
<p>The three friends of the akumatized victim also check their own ability to move. Ladybug must have fixed everything already, and he must have been petrified for a lot longer than it felt like. The guilt of having not been able to help his lady draws in, but maybe if he’s quick, he can catch up to her and explain.</p>
<p>“You okay, kid?” Plagg chirps from somewhere in his clothes.</p>
<p>“I’m fine,” Adrien says, dipping into the alley and out of sight. “I just hope the damage to Ladybug’s trust isn’t too irreparable for even her magical ladybugs to fix. Claws out!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He finds her swinging from one rooftop to another, and he intercepts her before she can leap off. When he lands in front of her, he can feel the frustration radiating outwards in waves.</p>
<p>“Don’t tell me I missed the party,” he tries for comical, though that usually doesn’t get him anywhere.</p>
<p>“Not in the mood, Chat,” Ladybug growls and moves to push past him, but he steps in her path, hands up.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” he amends quickly. “For the inappropriately timed joke and for being a no-show.”</p>
<p>“We can’t afford no-shows! Hawkmoth’s akumas are getting more powerful, and they’re hardly ever a one-hero job. I had to rely on Rena Rouge because Perplexe was so strong. Do you realize how risky it is having to hunt down another miraculous holder in the middle of the fight? Knowing I could be followed and expose their identity to Hawkmoth?” Ladybug’s mouth is set in a tight frown, and if there’s anything that hurts more than getting yelled at by his love, it’s knowing that he let her down.</p>
<p>“I know, I’m sorry,” Adrien says again. He lays a hand on Ladybug’s shoulder. Or he tries to, but she shrugs him off. “I <em> never </em> want to put you or our other miraculous holders at risk, but I have a reason for not helping today—”</p>
<p>“Save your excuses, Chat,” Ladybug bites, and Adrien is sure he flinches. “This battle took over an <em> hour, </em> which severely interrupted everyone’s day, including my own. We could have had her beat sooner if my partner, my ‘You can always count on me, my lady’ Chat Noir had been there.”</p>
<p>There have been other times like this, where Adrien had been captured or frozen or anything in between, and it almost prevented him from joining his partner in fighting crime. The last time, Plagg had smoothed it over with Ladybug by implying he’d “lost his miraculous.” Which, granted, didn’t make him look that great in her eyes, but she forgave him for it. This can’t become a trend, though. He doesn’t know what he’d do if he was absent one too many times for Ladybug to rely on him. What if she asked Master Fu to find another Chat Noir for her?</p>
<p>“I was petrified!” he explains desperately. “Literally. Perplexe got me right before I transformed. I don’t know how I could have avoided it. It felt like I was knocked unconscious, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the same place I’d been when she froze me, only the battle was over, and she was gone.”</p>
<p>Ladybug’s mouth opens slightly, and he sees the anger melt like Andre’s ice cream. She’s quiet for a moment, sympathy lining her features, and her shoulders relax. Now she looks sad, and Adrien can’t have that.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, Ladybug.”</p>
<p>“Don’t be.” She shakes her head and takes his hand, eyes locked on his bell instead of his face. “I’m sorry for yelling. I’m glad you’re alright.”</p>
<p>He agrees with her that they can’t afford no-shows. He wishes there was a way to communicate with each other outside of their suits, or that there could be a magical notification that blares “hey, your partner is incapacitated and otherwise unable to help!” That way, at least, the other person could work around the problem, maybe find a way to free them and allow them to transform.</p>
<p>But they would have to know each other’s identities for that to work.</p>
<p>“Actually, you saw me get petrified,” Adrien says in a low voice. He’s come so close to risking it all for Ladybug many times before, and now is no different. He’d lay down his life, his name, if it means keeping her safe.</p>
<p>Ladybug’s gaze flicks up to his, and he sees her do the gymnastics in her head. How many people had she seen get petrified? Was he with a group of people or alone? Would she recognize him without the mask?</p>
<p>“Chat, don’t,” she says, lowering his hand. But he lifts it again, wrapping it around her shoulder, and she doesn’t shove him off this time. “It’s not safe to know each other’s identities.”</p>
<p>“It’s not safe <em> not </em> to know either. That much is clear after today.” Adrien brings his other hand up, holding both of her shoulders so she has nowhere to look but the earnestness in his face. “If something happened to you, wouldn’t you want me to be able to find you, no matter what?”</p>
<p>Ladybug thinks about it, denial on her lips, but he knows she wants to say yes.</p>
<p>“You would want the same for me,” he goes on. “Next time this happens, and it’s probably going to happen again, you’ll know exactly where your stray Chat has gone.”</p>
<p>She doesn’t flat out refuse, which is a first. Whenever he brings up the subject, she shoots the idea down with the same argument she always uses. But maybe they’re getting somewhere now.</p>
<p>“I know I’ve asked about you before,” Adrien says, using one hand to gently lift her chin up. “But I really do think this is for the best. Don’t you ever get the feeling that all this has been leading up to something?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know…” she says more for herself than for him.</p>
<p>“I do,” Adrien admits, a small smile breaking into his expression. “And I think we were always meant to know each other. You know the other miraculous holders, and they’re still safe, aren’t they? We’ve been so good at keeping our own secrets from the entire world up to this point. We can keep each other’s.”</p>
<p>Ladybug steps away from him, arms hugging herself. He sees her like this sometimes, when self-doubt creeps in. It’s a distinctly Ladybug trait to not always act like a hero around him. He can almost see a normal girl standing in front of him, and all he needs to complete the picture is a name and the rest of her face.</p>
<p>“Don’t you start making sense on me now, Chat,” she says, and he catches the breath of a laugh in there.</p>
<p>He steps up to her, always there for when she feels not so heroic. He laces his fingers with hers, and when she looks at him, he nods for them to go.</p>
<p>“Come on,” he says softly.</p>
<p>“Where are we going?”</p>
<p>“Somewhere we can play a little game.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Eiffel Tower isn’t far. Ladybug with her yoyo and Adrien with his staff reach the very top of the tower in no time. They sit themselves on the floor, legs dangling over the edge. It’s familiar from their nights patrolling together, or nights when they just wanted to talk. Ladybug toys with the yoyo in her hands before clipping it back to her side.</p>
<p>“Is there actually a game we’re playing, or are you just going to ask me for my name?” she teases lightly.</p>
<p>Adrien taps his chin, smiling. There’s a hint of nervousness about Ladybug, which leads him to believe she might actually tell him if he asked. And that alone is enough to get him purring, so to speak.</p>
<p>“Who says it can’t be both? How about you let me try and figure you out? We ask each other some questions about our lives and come to it gradually. Less of a ripping-off-the-bandaid, yes?”</p>
<p>With her fingers wrapped around the edge, Ladybug casts her gaze out over Paris, a shy smile showing on her features.</p>
<p>“And we can stop if we change our minds,” Adrien adds.</p>
<p>She looks at him, looks all over him, and resigns herself with a sigh.</p>
<p>“Alright, kitten.” She folds her arms over the railing and rests her head on them, facing Adrien.</p>
<p>“Will the lady do the honors of the first swing?” Adrien offers with a bow of his head.</p>
<p>“Umm,” Ladybug hums, looking for somewhere to start. “How old are you?”</p>
<p>“Fourteen,” Adrien answers. It’s silly, but he feels a little thrill run through him like adrenaline. It’s the most intimate detail she knows about him now, and they’re only just starting.</p>
<p>“I thought you’d be younger,” Ladybug says, not missing a beat.</p>
<p>“Really?”</p>
<p>“Considering how immature you are sometimes,” she prods, and Adrien laughs.</p>
<p>“Fair enough,” Adrien admits with a shrug. “How old are you?”</p>
<p>“Also fourteen,” Ladybug answers with a blush.</p>
<p>And, wow. They’re in the same grade. They could go to the same school. Suddenly, this gradual game is going too slowly for Adrien. His lady is so close to him, and he wants to reach out and close all the rest of the distance between them.</p>
<p>“I have a feeling we have a lot in common, my lady.”</p>
<p>“What do you like to do in your free time?” Ladybug asks.</p>
<p>“Well, I don’t have that much free time. I’m in a lot of extra-curricular activities, which I enjoy doing a lot. But I think my favorite thing is hanging out with my friends.” And it’s the truth. Adrien has always played piano, has always studied Chinese, but this is the first year he’s been to field trips and picnics and music festivals with a group of people his age. And they’re wonderful people.</p>
<p>“They must be great friends,” Ladybug says.</p>
<p>“That hardly even covers it,” Adrien agrees. “What about you? Any hobbies?”</p>
<p>“I’m really into fashion,” she offers as an answer, then hesitates before adding more, her notorious instinct to clam up when talking about her personal life as a hero. “I want to be a designer one day. But I also like baking, and video games, and yeah, I really love hanging out with my friends too. Maybe the most.”</p>
<p>“What are your friends like?”</p>
<p>“Now, Chat, I do believe it’s my turn to ask a question.” Ladybug reaches out and pokes him with a finger.</p>
<p>“Guilty of overenthusiasm.” Adrien laughs. “Ask away.”</p>
<p>He thinks she’ll continue down the path of hobbies and friends, but instead she asks, “Have I ever met your civilian self?”</p>
<p>The question makes him pause for a moment, and he’s not sure why. It feels personal, but that’s the whole point. Those moments when he met Ladybug as Adrien, no mask to be brave behind, are special to him.</p>
<p>“You have,” he answers quietly. “You’ve saved my life more than once.”</p>
<p>Ladybug lets out a little gasp, and when he looks at her, he can see the search in her eyes, trying to find pieces so she can put them together.</p>
<p>“Have I met you?” he asks when she doesn’t say anything further.</p>
<p>“Quite a few times,” she admits with a small giggle. He wants to know why it’s funny. He wants to know so much.</p>
<p>“Wow,” Adrien breathes. How many times? Was he nice enough to her? Did she think he acted as ridiculous with her civilian self as he does with Ladybug?</p>
<p>“Chat?” Ladybug softly calls. A gentle worry lines her features.</p>
<p>Adrien smiles and shakes his head. His hand goes to touch her face, gloved thumb stroking her cheek just under the mask. He wishes he could touch her like this as Adrien, not as Chat Noir, but he suspects he might be able to very soon. Well, depending on her reaction when she sees him for the first time.</p>
<p>“It’s nothing. Just very disappointed in myself for not being able to recognize my lady without her disguise,” he tells her.</p>
<p>“It’s more complicated than that,” Ladybug says, reminding him of the mysticism and magic and all things illogical that go with wearing the suit. She leans into the touch on her cheek for a moment before lifting her head.</p>
<p>“I know,” he says. “Your question next.”</p>
<p>She thinks longer about this one than the others, her eyes drifting out over Paris again until it comes to her.</p>
<p>“Do you think we’ve met as ourselves before?”</p>
<p>Something he’s fantasized about, for sure. He’d always pictured it like an epic romance. They bump into each other in the street, he as Adrien, she as the still-faceless girl he’s starting to decode. They would lock eyes, and it would be like love at first sight, only better, because they already know each other, and they know that it’s always been them. You and me against the world, kind of thing.</p>
<p>Realistically, though, he’s entirely unsure.</p>
<p>“I have no idea.” The sentence blows out of him with some kind of awe. How fantastic would that be? Could he and Ladybug already know each other on a more personal level? Fewer secrets to keep between each other, more time to spend together, out of costume. “How crazy would it be if we have?”</p>
<p>“<em>Crazy</em>, crazy,” Ladybug agrees. “Paris is a big city.”</p>
<p>He can’t argue that fact, but he still believes (whatever hopelessly romantic part of him persists) something akin to fate would have put them together in more ways than just partners fighting bad guys.</p>
<p>“Is there anything familiar about me?” Adrien asks. Maybe she can help locate the pieces to start fitting them together.</p>
<p>At the question, Ladybug sits up a little straighter. She brings her legs back from over the edge, folds them in front of her. When she stares at him, Adrien feels the weight of her gaze all over him, his artificial cat eyes, his mouth, his hair, his shoulders, even his ring. It’s the exact same as the way Ladybug looks around for ways to use her lucky charm. She’s calculating, analytical, and so, so clever.</p>
<p>“Your empathy is,” she decides on.</p>
<p>“Huh?”</p>
<p>Maybe he was hoping for something closer to “your charismatic attitude” or “your professional cat-walking strut,” but this one grinds his expectations to a halt. Leave it to Ladybug to think outside the box. Or in this case, outside the suit.</p>
<p>“It’s obvious you care deeply about other people. When someone is scared, you help comfort them. When someone is sad, you offer some good advice, because you know what it’s like to feel that way, and you empathize with them.”</p>
<p>“Huh,” Adrien says again.</p>
<p>“It’s very familiar,” Ladybug says with a curious frown. “I just can’t tell from where yet.”</p>
<p>“I thought everyone was like that,” Adrien dismisses with a shrug.</p>
<p>“You’re incredibly kind, Chat Noir. Not a lot of people are,” Ladybug says, and it’s perhaps the greatest compliment he’s ever gotten. And he’s not just saying that because it came from Ladybug. Is he blushing? “Is there anything familiar about me?”</p>
<p>So much, he wants to say. He sees so much of Ladybug wherever he goes, but then again, no one in his life is as brave or smart or selfless as she is.</p>
<p>He tries harder to narrow it down. Her hair color, her beautiful eyes, the gentle frown she wears when she’s concentrating really hard on something.</p>
<p>Then he thinks of her voice, and an insignificant little moment from earlier today provides him the most clarity he’s ever gotten regarding his lady in red. Sometimes, he thinks, his lady would look really good in pink.</p>
<p>“There is,” he finally answers. A smile pulls at his lips, giddiness all but bursting out of him. “But before I tell you, I want to ask my last question.”</p>
<p>“O-Oh…” Ladybug blinks in surprise. “Go ahead.”</p>
<p>Adrien mirrors her position, crossing his legs and resting his hands in his lap.</p>
<p>“You told me there’s a boy you’re in love with. What’s his name?”</p>
<p>The blush that creeps up on her cheeks is immediate. And yes, very familiar. Ladybug ducks her head and draws her knees up, arms wrapping around them.</p>
<p>“Chat,” she adminishes, but she’s shy about it. “That won’t help.”</p>
<p>“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”</p>
<p>“I-I will…” she says with a light stutter. Also familiar. The literal cat is out of the metaphorical bag. “It’s just—I’ve never told anyone. Other than my closest friends.”</p>
<p>“I like to think you and I are pretty close too,” Adrien says, and it’s just enough to get her to lower her shoulders and roll her eyes fondly.</p>
<p>“You’re going to think I’m so lame,” she groans. Impossible, he thinks instead. “It’s… Adrien Agreste.”</p>
<p>She dares to steal a peek in his direction to see his reaction. Adrien just laughs, not loudly, not meanly, just in disbelief of the irony. Laughs that he was right to think fate had a little say in all this.</p>
<p>“People are so head over heels for that guy.” He looks at Ladybug and feels so much love, so much <em> relief </em>that it’s her. Always her. “For the record, I think you have great taste, Marinette.”</p>
<p>“What?!”</p>
<p>“Claws in.”</p>
<p>As the suit comes off, Adrien feels lighter. He looks at his lady as himself, and it feels like it’s for the first time. He waits for the different levels of comprehension as they so clearly pass over her face. First confusion, then clarity, maybe a bit of relief, and finally some embarrassment.</p>
<p>“You!” Ladybug—Marinette accuses.</p>
<p>“Me,” Adrien confirms.</p>
<p>“I—This whole time?”</p>
<p>“This whole time.”</p>
<p>Marinette buries her face in her hands, groaning.</p>
<p>“I can’t believe I just confessed to you like that,” comes a wobbly, muffled voice from between her hands. “All the times I almost told you, then tried to get over you, because we were friends, and I wanted to be a good friend and not some mindless girl with a huge crush. And God, I rejected you! I broke your heart as Ladybug! You probably don’t like her anymore, and you definitely don’t like me. I’m sorry, Adrien, this is all messed up.</p>
<p>Adrien leans into her space, wraps his fingers around her wrists so he can see her. When her hands drift back down to her lap, Adrien takes her cheeks in both palms and tilts her head up. It’s Marinette under that mask, with all her blushing and stuttering and cute little freckles.</p>
<p>“Messed up? It couldn’t be more perfect,” he promises her. The smile can’t leave his face, and it probably won’t for a while.</p>
<p>Marinette searches his eyes, her worry all over.</p>
<p>“You never broke my heart. I’ve loved Ladybug from the day we met, and that hasn’t changed.”</p>
<p>“Are you sure?” Marinette asks, voice still a bit shaky. “Even though you know it’s just me under the suit?”</p>
<p>Adrien guides one of her hands up to his face and leans his cheek against her fingers.</p>
<p>“There’s nothing ‘just’ about you, Marinette. If anything, I’m just sorry I took so long to see you,” he whispers.</p>
<p>His words make her gasp. The blush is still deep in her skin, but her face eases into something closer to endearment. She strokes over his cheek like she’s checking to make sure he’s real.</p>
<p>“I guess it worked itself out in the end,” she whispers back. “Spots off.”</p>
<p>“Give me a break,” Plagg groans from somewhere behind Adrien.</p>
<p>“Be nice, Plagg. This is a big moment for them,” Tikki responds sternly.</p>
<p>“Someone’s gonna have to tell the master.”</p>
<p>Adrien hardly listens to them, too wrapped up in the beauty of his lady, his classmate, one of his dearest friends. Marinette looks at him expectantly, all nervous and excited and maybe a little caught up in the impossibility that they can really have it like this after all.</p>
<p>And Adrien is done keeping his lady waiting, so he says, “I don’t think we’re at the end just yet,” and pulls her in for a kiss.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/shamu_who">here's my twitter</a> — i need to follow more ml accounts!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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